1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print control apparatus, a method of controlling the same, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, print control apparatuses (such as PCs) and image forming apparatuses are provided with a function for registering, and managing, information related to paper types (sheet types) that those apparatuses are available. In these apparatuses, a user registers in the apparatus a sheet type for which independent parameters are set, and the user is able to input a print job by specifying the registered sheet type or a sheet type set in the apparatus in advance. In such a case, the management of the sheet type is performed in the two places of the print control apparatus and the image forming apparatus, and there was no coordination of these. In other words, when performing setting of the sheets for an image forming apparatus, first the sheet type is registered on the image forming apparatus, and a sheet feeder (sheet feeding unit) for which sheets corresponding to the sheet type are set is registered. Then, with the print control apparatus, once again, it was necessary to register the sheet type, and to perform an association between the registered sheet type and the sheet feeder of the image forming apparatus. Accordingly, it was necessary to set the sheet type in the two places of the print control apparatus and the image forming apparatus when the user used a new sheet.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-241425, in order to resolve this, configuration is taken such that information of the sheet type, managed by each the print control apparatus and the image forming apparatus, is periodically exchanged, and such that sheet type registration processing that previously had required registering the new sheet type two times could be performed in one time. Furthermore, it becomes possible to perform an association between a sheet type and a sheet feeder that had been previously performed by the image forming apparatus on the print control apparatus. It is recited that with this, the user, without going to the place of the image forming apparatus, can register the sheet type to the image forming apparatus, and can register the registered sheet type to the sheet feeder, by operating the print control apparatus.
However, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-241425, in a case where the image forming apparatus is transitioned into a power saving state, there is the following problem. For example, when the image forming apparatus is in the power saving state, the user registers a new sheet type on the print control apparatus, and the registered sheet type is registered to the sheet feeder. Here, the print control apparatus registers the registered sheet type into its own sheet type DB (database), and registers the sheet type for a sheet type DB that the image forming apparatus manages. With this, the image forming apparatus returns to a normal power state from the power saving state, and performs the registration of the sheet type to the sheet feeder. After that, while a print request to the image forming apparatus is not made, the image forming apparatus waits in the normal power state for a fixed time period until print processing is initiated. As a result, unnecessary electric power continues to be consumed on the image forming apparatus.